Amorim Flooring

Phthalate Free solution

Wicanders announces the introduction of phthalate free solutions in all of its High Performance Surface products:

• Greener and healthier alternative in the current High Performance Surface (HPS) products, maintaining all the properties of a high performance finishing and keeping the durability and longevity of the floor covering.
• Healthier and environmental friendly choice that contributes for an even better indoor air quality.
• Safer plasticizers used in the production of HPS.

Wicanders by Amorim Revestimentos, renowned for the continuous development of eco-friendly solutions for cork coverings, announces that from January 2014 onwards all HPS production will be made with phthalate free plasticizers.

Phthalates are substances included in plasticizers that are considered harmful to health. Therefore, Wicanders has decided to make a replacement of current plasticizers in all HPS products — a solution specially developed for areas with heavy traffic such as commercial, business or general public areas — with a new non-phthalate plasticizers generation. With this innovation, Wicanders improves the indoor air quality to even higher standards, keeping all the original features of the product, such as flexibility, transparency and durability.

This new technology will be available in the commercial solutions of Corkcomfort, Woodcomfort and Artcomfort product lines contributing to a greener and healthier alternative, which reinforces Wicanders’ environmental responsibility, maintaining all the properties of a high performance finishing.

The removal of these harmful phthalates enables Wicanders to achieve a new standard by combining sustainable concerns with its unique state of the art technology.

Aquafil

Radiance Solar Installation

Radiance Solar this week completed one of Georgia’s largest solar photovoltaic installations at Aquafil USA headquarters with a 400 kW system.

The Aquafil system will produce 500,000 kWh of power annually to the energy intensive manufacturing facility. System components include solar panels from Georgia-based Suniva with 1572 Optimus 260 W modules. The Power Gate Plus 500 inverter is made by Satcon, a Boston-based operation. The system is interconnected to Cartersville Electric System.

Aquafil, a chemical and textile firm and leader in carpet fiber technology, has a strong commitment to sustainability in the development of eco-friendly products and the reduction of the impact of its production activities, and the prospect of generating their own power also made sense financially.

“Investing in solar technology is not only in line with our corporate promise of sustainable practices but it also makes economic sense by lowering our energy costs,”said Franco Rossi, General Manager, Aquafil USA.

Dal-Tile

Ceramic tile is one of the most environmentally friendly floor/wall covering products due to its extremely long life cycle, zero VOC content/emissions and extremely low maintenance requirements. Nevertheless, Dal-Tile Corporation is always looking to make its products even more sustainable. The way the company improves upon that nature is to increase the content of recycled materials used to formulate their products, including the use of postconsumer and pre-consumer recycled materials.

To further demonstrate this commitment to sustainability, Dal-Tile is now going above and beyond as an environmental leader — all in the name of transparency and clarity for the end user. Together with PE International and UL Environment, one of North America’s most trusted EPD operators, Dal-Tile Corporation recently completed the extensive Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) development process for all products manufactured in the company’s North American production facilities. With this third party validation, Dal-Tile is the first manufacturer in the ceramic tile category to voluntarily disclose cradle-to-grave impacts on all Daltile, American Olean, Marazzi USA and Ragno USA products through UL Environment certified EPDs.

An EPD is a comprehensive, internationally harmonized report that documents the ways in which a product, throughout its lifecycle, affects the environment. An EPD tells the complete sustainability story of a product in a single, written report.

Dal-Tile Corporation’s EPDs took information compiled in rigorous product lifecycle assessments to focus on the environmental impact in several categories, including global warming potential, ozone depletion potential, photochemical ozone creation potential, eutrophication potential, acidification potential and depletion of abiotic resources. Dal-Tile’s EPDs are a valuable tool to empower its customers to make more informed purchasing decisions, so when they consider Daltile, American Olean, Marazzi USA and Ragno products for a sustainable project, it isn’t just an easy decision — it’s one they can be sure of.

Engineered Floors, LLC

Residential solution dyed carpet production process

In 2009, Engineered Floors LLC began construction of its first carpet production facility in Calhoun, Ga. The facility was the first greenfield residential carpet mill constructed in the last thirty (30) years. By starting with a clean slate, we were able to implement a new production model for residential carpet. This model maximizes energy efficiency and minimizes the use of water in the production process.

In the traditional carpet manufacturing process, fiber is produced in one facility and is further processed into yarn in another one. Yarn is then shipped to a third facility to be processed into carpet and then a final shipment to distribution center for shipment. These shipments all requires the movement of four trucks sometimes as much as several hundred miles. In the Engineered Floors model, we have eliminated the interplant movement of work in process products and the subsequent energy required to move those products. All production is performed under one roof. PET chips come in one side of the plant and finished carpet ships to customers.

Even more significant energy and water savings is accomplished by the elimination of the aqueous dyeing of carpet. In the traditional process, carpets are immersed in an aqueous dye path to impart color to the fiber. The EF model is to bypass the traditional aqueous dyeing process and insert color into the fiber during the fiber formation process. This technique, known as solution dyeing, yields carpet with superior fade resistance, stain resistance and bleach resistance in addition to significant savings in energy and water.

In studies with a leading university comparing our manufacturing process to the traditional carpet manufacturing process we offer 87 percent savings in water and 32 percent savings in energy. In addition, our process generates 42 percent less greenhouse gas. These savings occur on every square yard we produce. That increases the overall impact to the environment significantly versus an environmental process that is used on only one product line or only applies to only small part of a company’s overall sales. For instance, the water savings from our process results in savings of over 500 million gallons a year.

J&J Flooring

J+J Flooring Aquafinity

The Dalton carpet industry uses approximately 9-12 million gallons of water each day — a huge amount especially in light of recent droughts across the country. According to the World Bank, global demand for water doubles every 21 years.

An Industry First: J+J Flooring Group in partnership with Aqua-Chem developed and tested the Aquafinity process over a three year period. Aquafinity is the first dyehouse wastewater reuse system in the carpet industry. It reflects a complete overhaul of dye house wastewater operations, the most water-intensive process in carpet manufacturing. The Aquafinity process:

• Recovers waste water from the dye house.
• Purifies it using a blend of filters, ultra filtration, and reverse osmosis that together remove dye and chemical additives down to the molecular level.
• Returns purified reusable water to the dye house.

Water Savings: Aquafinity is capable of recovering 65 percent of dyehouse wastewater. Currently J+J is running the system 3.5 days per week with a savings of:

• 250,000 to 380,000 gallons of water per week
• 1.3 million gallons per month
• 16 million gallons per year

J+J’s six-point 20/20 Vision sets our goal for water usage to be reduced by 66 percent by 2020.

Energy Savings: Not only does Aquafinity enable a carpet mill to use less water, it enables the industry to use less energy. Aquafinity results in consistently warmer and cleaner water than the 60-degree water previously purchased from Dalton Utilities. By not heating water, we save:

• 5 billion BTUs of energy each year
• Enough energy to power 150 local homes for a full year

Industry Leadership: Pioneered by a third-generation, family-owned business, this leading-edge wastewater recovery system is a first in the carpet industry. But a sustainable industry is better than a sustainable company. That is why J+J offer tours of Aquafinity for its associates, customers, regional officials…and yes, even competitors.

Mohawk

Laminate

Mohawk laminate technologies allow us to create more realistic replication of domestic exotics, rainforest and tropical woods than ever before, resulting in better conservation of hardwood resources. Producing laminates with a long lifespan — one backed by the North American Laminate Flooring Association’s Certification seal — minimizes flooring replacement.

Superior Laminate Cores: Only high-quality, renewable, fast-growing, sustainable southern pines are used in Mohawk’s U.S. facilities to manufacture laminate cores. Core board is made from managed forest lumber and recycled wood products. One Mohawk core board manufacturer receives 100 percent of the wood for its boards from the wood processing facility next-door, minimizing transportation and handling expense. And rejected laminate product is integrated into Mohawk’s chip board factory or reused by third-party manufacturers.

74 percent Recycled Content: Mohawk laminates are produced with an average of 74 percent post-industrial recycled content, keeping 680 million pounds of material out of landfills annually. This contributes to LEED certification, qualifying Mohawk laminate as an EPP (Environmentally Preferred Product) in all green rating systems.

Uniclic: Mohawk’s patented glue-less and chemical-free Uniclic Technology provides fast, easy angled sliding installation on laminate plank sides without adversely impacting indoor air quality. Other glue-less locking systems require large floor sections to be torn up and discarded, even when only a few planks are damaged. Uniclic allows for replacement of only the damaged plank — even one in the middle of the floor — to reduce landfill waste.

Wastewater recovery/reuse: All Mohawk tile manufacturing plants recover and recycle wastewater to the maximum extent possible; in five years, we recovered and reused more than 266 million gallons. Five facilities discharge no process wastewater. We save local utility providers over 90 million gallons of fresh water on average each year. In addition, Mohawk’s tile manufacturing processes divert 200 million pounds of solid waste from landfills annually.

Energy conservation: Mohawk tile manufacturing processes also conserve energy and raw materials; in two years, our energy savings equaled enough natural gas to fuel more than 6,000 homes and enough electricity to service more than 1,700 homes for an entire year.

Mohawk

Continuum process

More than 20 years ago, Mohawk began incorporating recycled plastic bottles into staple PET. As the market has moved predominantly to BCF, Mohawk — now one of the industry’s oldest and largest bottle recyclers — is drawing on its two decades of experience utilizing recycled content in PET to develop a cleaner, stronger, better fiber than ever.

Mohawk has invested $180 million in its patented Continuum Process for PET to create a cleaner process, cleaner product and cleaner planet.

Cleaner Product: Continuum reduces 95 percent of lubricants on the fiber, resulting in better resistance to dirt, grime and contaminants that cause other PET carpets to become dingy and wear prematurely. With the added protection of Scotchgard Advanced Repel Technology, products made with Continuum are the cleanest choice within the PET category.

Cleaner Planet: PET carpets manufactured with Continuum contain up to 100 percent recycled content in the yarn and Mohawk’s recycling operation annually diverts over three billion bottles — about 20 percent of bottles recycled in the US — from landfills.

EverStrand, Mohawk’s branded PET, has earned Environmental Claim Validation from UL Environment, a business unit of Underwriters Laboratories (UL). UL, a global independent safety science company, offers expertise in product safety, environment and verification services. UL Environment also validated Mohawk’s Summerville extrusion plant as a “Postconsumer Reclamation Facility.” The Summerville facility, where the Continuum Process is used, is the first in the flooring industry to receive UL Environment validation.

Shaw Industries

1 megawatt solar panel installation, Cartersville, Ga. (Plant 15)

Within Shaw’s holistic approach to sustainability, the company continually explores opportunities to improve energy efficiency and employ renewable and alternative energy sources.

In 2013, the company installed one of the Southeast’s largest commercial solar photovoltaic installations on the roof of its carpet tile manufacturing plant in Cartersville, Ga. Solar is a mature, reliable power source, and the economics made this project a viable, long-term investment.

The one megawatt system, which began operation in October, will produce 1.4 million kilowatt hours of power annually. That’s enough to power approximately 100 homes in Georgia each year. The roof-mounted system includes 3,696 U.S.-made panels and features a monitoring system that incorporates a large screen monitor in the building to display real-time energy production.

Feeding into the Georgia Power electric grid, Shaw uses this renewable energy to help power its carpet tile manufacturing facility (known as Plant 15).

The environmental benefits of the system are equivalent to removing 949.7 tonnes CO2e/year and 4.7 tonnes NOx/year. That’s the equivalent of removing 198 passenger vehicles from the road each year.

This endeavor complements Shaw’s multifaceted approach to energy. In 2012, Shaw invested more than $5 million in energy efficiency and greenhouse gas improvements, and the company reduced its GHG emissions intensity by more than 17 percent from 2011 to 2012.

Dedicated to creating a better future for its customers, its employees, the company and its communities, Shaw’s 2030 environmental goals include designing 100 percent of its products to Cradle to Cradle protocols, which includes a focus on renewable energy — as well as material health, material reutilization, water stewardship and social fairness.

Q-Wood Process Entry

Innovative Use Of PureBond — No Added Formaldehyde

Q-Wood has invested in outstanding technologies such as PureBond formaldehyde-free engineered flooring technology. Use of PureBond technology allows Q-Wood to produce engineered hardwood in a way that does not add formaldehyde to their floors. This means Q-Wood’s engineered hardwood meets strict formaldehyde emissions standards that many other brands do not meet.

FloorScore Certified & CARB compliant

Q-Wood’s engineered hardwood has earned the prestigious FloorScore Certification and all Q-Wood hardwood products are CARB compliant. Q-Wood’s innovative use of the patented PureBond technology in the production of their engineered hardwood was key to the brand earning the coveted FloorScore certification.

Significance Of FloorScore Certification

FloorScore testing screens products for 78 volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Families living on Q-Wood’s engineered hardwood floors can have peace of mind that these floors have passed strict testing for indoor air quality.

Q-Wood’s FloorScore certified hard surface products contribute to the earning of LEED points for projects under The U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED v3 Commercial Interiors and New Construction and Major Renovations program.

The FloorScore certified Q-Wood floors also meet criteria required by a variety of well-respected organizations such as the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the Collaborative for High Performance Schools (CHPS), and the Green Guide for Health Care.

Importance Of CARB compliance

Consumers who purchase Q-Wood’s hardwood flooring can have full confidence they are putting a hardwood floor in their home that meets strict formaldehyde emissions standards that many other brands do not meet.

Lacy Act compliant

All Q-Wood floors are Lacey Act compliant.

Quick-Step Flooring

On average, 70 percent of the content of Quick-Step’s U.S.-produced laminate flooring is made from pre-consumer recycled material – material that would otherwise be burned, or dumped into a landfill. This particular pre-consumer recycled content is usually unused wood chips procured from sawmills that serve the furniture manufacturers and other wood intensive industries. Managed-forest lumber is the other ingredient in Quick-Step’s coreboard. Before milling, the original lumber in Quick-Step floors is responsibly sourced from sustainable forests.

Any wood material that is not fully utilized during the production of Quick-Step coreboard is sent to a third party. This third party combines the unused content with other recycled wood materials for use as fuel, mulch, or as an absorbent. It is also important to note that our parent company Unilin strategically established its coreboard plant right next door to the sawmill that supplies the pre-consumer recycled material. This location decision has the positive environmental impact of transportation savings in both energy and greenhouse gas emissions.

All Quick-Step US-produced floors have earned the prestigious FloorScore certification by passing one of the most stringent indoor air quality certification programs in the world. During the FloorScore certification process, Quick-Step floors are tested for 78 volatile organic compounds (VOCs). All US-produced Quick-Step laminate floors are also CARB Phase 2 Compliant.

The technology Quick-Step has developed and uses during production enables the brand to effectively imitate any wood species. Quick-Step makes the look of exotic rainforest and tropical woods available, without cutting down one endangered tree.

Quick-Step flooring also features the patented Uniclic glueless installation locking system which is of superior construction. It is Uniclic that gives Quick-Step flooring its unique ability to be effectively reused up to three times, instead of being thrown away.